Jaguar girls overwhelm Griffins, 102-8
By Lucia Landivar
The Cooperative girls varsity basketball team conquered the International varsity girls basketball team with an astonishing 102 to 8 victory at the Cooperative gym Thursday afternoon.
Cooperative Athletic Director Alvaro Ludueña formally apologized to International for the way in which the Jaguar team had run up the score. Had he been present for the second half, he wrote in a letter, he would have transmitted to the Cooperative coach instructions to “make the players lower the intensity of the game.” Ludueña said his team had exhibited poor sportsmanship, which he regretted.
Both teams had entered the court excited to play the game. There were a few SCIS Griffins cheering for their girls. The Jaguars were supported by the SCCS cheerleading squad along with a number of students and teachers. The Griffins’ nervousness, however, couldn’t be missed, while the Jaguars were confident-
The game started off with Jaguar Giovanna Varalta scoring the first points for her team. Varalta also scored the second basket with a layup that can only be achieved through skills and technique. Jaguar Ana Paula Peredo scored a free throw shortly after that, and the Jaguars were off and running, attacking the Griffins constantly, not letting them rest for a single second.
With the score 17 to 0 in favor of the Jaguars, Griffin Carolina Baldivieso showed she wasn’t ready to give up. She grabbed a rebound and dribbled the length of the court to score a basket. Period one ended with the score of 19 to 2.
During the second period of the game, Jaguars Sofia Sotelo and Ana Paula Peredo passed the ball back and forth between them constantly, scoring several baskets in the process. Tania Landivar didn’t miss a chance to score baskets any time she got the ball in her hands.
In the opening minutes of the second period, Peredo and Griffin Diana Maria Salman fought over the ball, and Jaguar Ana Paula ended up having it, and scoring another basket for the Jaguars.
Griffin Fabiana Zelada attempted several times to score a basket, but the Jaguar defense didn’t let her get away with it. Griffins’’ star player Carolina Baldivieso fell at one point and injured her knee, requiring medical attention and forcing her to sit out the rest of the game, further weakening the Griffins.
However, the Griffins did get baskets from Zelada and Salman before the half ended with the score 40 to 6 for the Jaguars.
Cooperative coach Max Farfan could not send in his second string for the second half since her had only seven players available including JV player Giuliana Varalta, all of whom played extensively.
The third period started with Zelada demonstrating that she wasn’t ready to throw in the towel as she scored the Griffins third basket. But the Jaguars kept scoring. Karla Aguilera, an SCCS student who was watching, said, “I’m afraid to blink and miss a basket.”
Jaguars Carla Limpias, Sotelo, Landivar, and Peredo were relentless, scoring at a rate of almost two baskets a minute. Jessica Maureira added a free throw. By the end of the third quarter the score had reached 76-6, and it seemed that the Jaguars simply couldn’t miss. Sotelo effortlessly tossed in a three-pointer, and Giovanna Varalata drove to the basket to make one lay-up after another, mixing in an occasional outside shot.
In the last quarter the Griffins seemed ready to toss in the towel and were just going through the motions, though Pamela Hernandez was able to add their fourth basket. The Jaguar pace actually slackened slightly. They had scored 36 points in the third quarter, and would score only 26 in the fourth.
But the Jaguar passing attack was as fast-paced and precise as at any point during the game. Peredo, who normally plays close to the basket, shot a three-pointer. The ball kept entering the Griffin’s basket constantly, until the game ended with a Jaguar victory of 102 to 8.
The teams shook hands, and the Jaguars screamed with happiness over their hard-to- believe victory.
The Jaguar seniors had played on the junior varsity team that had until Thursday owned the record for the largest victory margin as a result of winning a game against International 74-6 in 2008. In that game, several players had wanted to try for 100 points, but then coach Misty Skidmore had told them not to do so.
This time there was no holding them back.
For the Jaguars, Carla Limpias tallied 30 points; Ana Peredo 26, Sophia Sotelo 21, Tania Landivar and Giovanna Varalta 12 apiece, and Jessica Maureira one.
For Internmationa, Carolina Baldivieso, Fabiana Zelada, Diana Maria Salman, and Pamela Hernandez were each credited with a basket.
Eagles defeat Lady Knights in overtime, 24-20
By Laura Guillen and Flavia Berton
Cambridge Knight varsity girls basketball team, hoping to surprise its home fans with an upset victory, suffered instead a tough overtime loss against the Christian Learning Eagles, losing 20-24 after the extra five minutes allotted after the two teams had tied 20-20.
The game played at Cambridge Thursday was neck-and-neck almost the whole way through and you could feel the tension rising within the big crowd of Eagle and Knight supporters in the Cambridge gym. .
The game began with both teams struggling to score, and the first quarter ended with the Eagles on top, three baskets to two -- 06-4.
Getting into the second quarter the Eagles took a small but steady lead as Abby Phillips made some free throws and Rebekah Kienzle tossed in a basket. The Lady Knights managed to narrow the gap back to two points on baskets by Nicole Fermin and Josie Rodriguez, both ninth graders, and Cambridge trailed by two points as the first half of the game ended with the score 10-8 for the Eagles.
At half time the players took a break from the intense first half action, figured out new game plans, and soon were off to play the second half of the game.
This was when things really started to heat up on several fronts.
Knight Mako Ueno had really showed off her driving lay-up skills during the game. She fought for every ball. Anytime there were two players on the floor wrestling for the ball, the odds were good that one of them was the seemingly fragile, porcelainate Ueno, another ninth grader.
Ueno did everything in her power to make baskets and, in the third period, it worked! She tallied four points in th e third quarter, and two more in the fourth.
The Eagles, for their part, were not idle. Toward the end of the quarter Abby Phillips, a junior who would score 18 of Christian Learning’s points, put in three baskets that kept the Eagles in the lead, 16-14, at the end of the third quarter. .
Approaching the end of the game, the mood was intense. Everyone has their eyes glued to the game, and both Cambridge and Christian Learning fans were going all out to support their teams.
But now it was Lady Knight Nicole Fermin’s turn to show off as she stole balls and ran the length of the court twice to score four points for her team, and evened the score by making two free throws with a minute remaining.
There was a breath-holding moment with nine seconds left on the clock, when a free throw by Phillips could have secured the victory for the Eagles, but happily for the Cambridge fans Phillips narrowly missed both her attempts, meaning the game would go into overtime.
The pressure was on to win, and everyone was cheering loudly at the stands hoping that their team would triumph. This is to be the most intense 5 minutes this game will have, and it will be the time for the Eagles and their star, Phillips, to shine.
Phillips immediately stole the spotlight, first by making two free throws and then a basket, giving her team its four-point victory margin.
Cambridge is, at this point, was clearly a spent force. Phillips and her teammates ably blocked shots by Fermin, Rodriguez, Ueno and 10th grader Micaelah Torrez. Cambridge got several chances to shave the Eagle lead from the foul line, but its fatigued players couldn’t t exploit them, and the game ends 24-20 for the Eagles.
It is the Eagles second close victory over the Knights this season. It appears likely that the two teams, now in second and third in the League Standings, will meet at least one more time, in the playoff semi-finals. Knight fans will be hoping that the third time will be the charm.
For the victorious Eagles, besides Phillips' 18 points, Samia Dajbura, Javiera Alipaz, and Rebehkah Hienzle each had two points.
Fir the Knights, Fermin was the leading scorer with ten points; Ueno had six: Rodriguez and Torrez had two points each.
(Laura Guillen is managing editor for the website at Cambridge; Flavia Berton is a junior at the school.)
